Architectural designs for various types of construction, including buildings and bridges, call for the use of brick in the walls of buildings. Although of little structural importance in modern construction projects, brick walls continue to be used for decorative architectural purposes. However, making walls entirely of brick and mortar has become relatively expensive in recent years in comparison to poured concrete. One development that has reduced the cost of brick walls has been the use of decorative thin bricks, which are cast into concrete wall panels. Such decorative bricks are significantly thinner than normal bricks and therefore are significantly less expensive than normal bricks per square foot of wall coverage.
However, since decorative bricks cannot be made into a regular brick wall, a new type of technology was required. In order to cast the decorative bricks into the concrete walls, polymer brick formliners were developed, which have a plurality of brick-receiving recesses. The brick-receiving recesses are designed to hold the decorative bricks in place during the casting of concrete walls. The brick-receiving recesses are formed into the formliners in regular brick patterns, with each recess having the same depth distance, so as to create a clean and organized brick appearance in the final panel product. Such formliners are first placed on a surface capable of supporting the weight of the formliners, decorative bricks, and poured concrete. Decorative bricks are then placed into the formliners and concrete is cast on top of the decorative bricks and formliners.
Unfortunately, the clean and organized appearance of the final brick-lined concrete panel has resulted in an unforeseen aesthetic problem. The use of such formliners in the manufacture of buildings has resulted in a very consistent appearance in such look for such prefabricated wall sections. One purpose that drove the development of brick formliners was the creation of a wall that had the appearance of hand-laid brick, without the extra cost associated with hand-laid brick. Normally, the use of manual labor in the laying of brick walls results in a brick wall in which some bricks extend further out of the wall than other bricks, as a result of normal human imprecision in construction. However, the regularity and precision of the thin brick placement, which is the result of the use of such polymer brick formliners, has resulted in the mass production of brick lined concrete panels that appear as though they have been manufactured by a machine rather than built up by hand.
The general construction and function of formliner apparatuses are well known in the art. Such formliners include the formliner described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,476 to Iragorri, assigned to San-Vel Concrete Corporation, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, the formliner described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,037 to Passeno, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, and the formliner described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,567 to Passeno, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Formliners are often used modularly, such that several formliners must be lined up end to end or top to bottom in order to hold sufficient numbers of bricks or other elements for a wall. The joints between such formliners are often simply planar joints butted next to one another. When cementitious material is applied to the surface of such joints, the cementitious material may flow through the planar joints, resulting in extra time and labor to clean up the cementitious material that flowed through the planar joints.
Formliners are often used with plywood backing, which is either cured into or glued into the main portion of the formliner. Such plywood is provided to add additional structural strength and stability to the formliner. However, such plywood may become dislodged during the use of the formliner, particularly if the formliner is used numerous times.
What is needed is a new type of formliner that can be used to manufacture a brick wall that has the appearance that it was built by hand, rather than manufactured with a brick formliner. What is also needed is a formliner that prevents the flow of cementitious material. What is also needed is a formliner that provides better structural stability. The present invention provides this advantage as well as other related advantages.